As the Centerville municipal election campaigning heats up, UTOPIA is made an issue again. I suspect that if it were not for all the negative press stirred up by people with agendas, UTOPIA would be a thriving enterprise. People would sign up in great numbers because of the excellent opportunities it provides. Let me tell you my own experience with this ultra-fast internet service.

My son graduated in May with a bachelor’s degree in computer science. Throughout his studies, he has needed a fast Internet connection. We tried all available options, but we weren’t satisfied with the slow speeds and high costs.

Consequently, we signed up for a cable Internet-only “fast” connection for about $90 per month. They offered speeds of 25 to 30 megabits per second (mbps) to download, but depending on Internet traffic in the neighborhood, we were lucky to occasionally get 70 percent of those speeds.

It was totally inadequate for the massive uploads my son had to do for both school and work.

When UTOPIA was available in our neighborhood, it wasn’t a hard decision for us to purchase a connection and subscribe to a Utah provider.

We bundled phone and Internet, and the total bill was $75 less per month, including taxes and fees. Now Internet speed is a constant 100 mbps.

We are using lds.org, youtube.com, Netflix, and iTunes with incredibly fast download speeds and are ready for TV network broadcasts via Netflix when available.

In other words, UTOPIA is saving me a bunch of money and providing me with outstanding service with a Utah company, not a national monopolist.

I praise Centerville leaders for their vision in enabling UTOPIA to be part of our city infrastructure.

I hope that UTOPIA is not forced to sell, as iProvo has, which will likely result in mandatory subscriptions to Google for connection and service.

No one else in Centerville provides dedicated fiber optic lines to customers at a price that beats the slower competition hands down.